


Bound By The Truth

by AndreaLyn



Category: The Magnificent Seven (2016)
Genre: M/M, Truth Serum
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-03
Updated: 2018-01-03
Packaged: 2019-02-27 21:09:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13256664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AndreaLyn/pseuds/AndreaLyn
Summary: Faraday wouldn't have imagined that you could catch truth-telling like a cold, but a visit to a small town proves him wrong. It's a shame he can't blame his decision to go infect Vasquez as a symptom, but he's planning on it regardless.





	Bound By The Truth

**Author's Note:**

> For SwingSet, because of the ridiculous amount of chat/fic ideas that she pulled for me. This is the second of third, with that one coming...well, as soon as I have a plot for it! Enjoy!

Faraday’s not sure when the hell the world got so goddamn ridiculous, but here he is, suffering from some kind of weird hocus-pocus _truth spell_. They’d wandered into it without realizing, the six of them, finding themselves trapped in the chaos of a small town with a few witch-happy residents who were after the truth of whether their husbands were cheating on them (they were) and figured a little dose of truth would help (it didn’t).

What they didn’t anticipate was that the damn spell would be _contagious._

That had been three days ago and they had another two before it ran its course. For the last few days, Faraday and their merry band have been telling each other all the things they’ve been keeping under their vest. Sam’s had to stop Red from killing Goodnight, Jack’s told far too many stories about a family that’s depressingly long gone, and Faraday had been relieved that their party had been six when they’d come into town.

Six, because this little town happened to have a fairly heavy presence of warrant officers, so Vasquez had settled into a cabin a half-day’s ride away to wait for them to finish their business in town (which started and stopped at delivering a warrant, but now they’re goddamn quarantined because of this little truth bug).

Worse, now that it’s been three days in and Faraday can’t escape, his mind has started to play tricks on him, suggesting idiotic things.

_If you went there and got him infected, you could find out what he really thinks of you._

That little voice has been getting louder, maybe because on the first day, he’d had to give up his own embarrassing truth about his feelings for Vasquez to Billy. They’d been sniping at each other and after Faraday had managed to get Billy to confess what position he and Goodnight liked to fuck in, Billy had turned tables by asking whether he’s just jealous because he’s not getting any action from Vasquez.

Faraday’s damn truth-infected mouth had wound up betraying him and now practically their whole group knows. 

_If you went and Vasquez had to tell the truth, you and him could be stuck together for five days_ , says that voice, but this one is more split down the middle, seeing as that could go over real well if Vasquez happens to feel the same way, but it could end up with one or the both of them dead if he doesn’t.

Faraday’s been hopeful, though.

You don’t shoot a man the way Vasquez did McCann for no reason. You don’t start calling him _guerito_ in the middle of a fight. You don’t carry him back to town in your arms, whispering strangled pleas before spending weeks nursing you back to health.

So, yeah, he’s got a good feeling that it might go over well.

It still doesn’t account for why he thinks it’s a good idea to sneak out of the town in the middle of the night, escaping the quarantine to bolt for Vasquez’s cabin, taking care not to run into anyone else while he’s out there. What he’s doing is damn stupid, but the last thing he needs is to be the cause of a national panic. 

He makes it to the little cabin and once he’s on the porch with his horse tied up, he figured that he might as well go through with it. No one knows what the reach of this little bug is, so he might as well face the music. It’s only when he’s here that he realizes that feelings or not, Vasquez is probably going to knock him the fuck unconscious when he finds out that Faraday has done this on purpose.

Fuck everything, he’s already here. Knocking on the door, he leans as casually as he can against the post. “It’s Faraday,” he says. “I’m alone.”

He hears the creaking of footsteps and the cock of a gun, like Vasquez doesn’t trust him or something. As soon as he hears about the compulsory truth-telling, Faraday figures that he’ll start trusting him immediately. From experience, he knows that it hits within about an hour, so the minutes are ticking until Vasquez is under his own special thrall.

Yeah, Faraday is definitely getting shot for this one.

“What are you doing here?” Vasquez demands, opening the door a fraction of space that’s just enough for Faraday to slip inside, before he bolts it behind him, checking the windows to see if Faraday’s been followed.

“Me and the rest of the boys ran into some kind of truth spell that’s contagious and takes five days to run its course,” Faraday starts spilling his guts instantly because of _course_ Vasquez had to ask a direct damn question right off the bat. “I’d say that I didn’t want you feel left out, but that’s a lie, and the truth is that I wanted to come here and infect you so that I could ask you questions and know for sure what the true answer is.”

All through his ramble, Vasquez’s eyes have been growing wider. By the end, he’s set his gun down on the nightstand firmly and is staring at Faraday like he can’t decide whether he wants to kick him or punch him.

“You’re a fucking idiot, _cabron_ ,” Vasquez hisses before he punches him with a hard right swing. _Yup_ , thinks Faraday, wiping away a droplet of blood from his lip. He’d deserved that. Pacing, he shoots an incredulous look over his shoulder. “Am I already infected?”

Faraday nods his head.

“Fucking idiot,” Vasquez spits out again, like he needs to say it as many times as he can, even though Faraday has no clue why he’s so bothered. He’ll still be telling the truth when he says it later, so there’s no rush to get it out now. “You could have just asked me a question before.”

“Yeah, but now, I’m gonna know that you’re telling the full truth,” Faraday points out, taking Vasquez’s bandanna from him when he extends it to help stop the bleed from his lip. “Sorry,” he admits, a little surprised that he actually is. “I know this is stupid, but I’ve been crazy about you since Rose Creek and I figured that one way or another, I could find out. Truth won’t kick in for another hour, though, and then it’s five days.”

Glowering at Faraday, Vasquez doesn’t bother answering him. He grabs his hat and the large overcoat he wears and heads out the back door to tend to his horse or work on something else, but pointedly, he’s getting out of Faraday’s vicinity.

They’re off to a real great start.

It’s three hours later when Vasquez finally comes back inside, just as the sun’s starting to rise. He deliberately avoids Faraday, glaring at him every chance he gets. By now, Vasquez is _definitely_ infected, which means that Faraday can get his answers. That is, if he can get Vasquez to talk to him.

Lucky for him (and unlucky for Vasquez), one delightful little side effect of their predicament is that the truth _wanted_ to come out, making it hard to keep your mouth shut. “You feeling honest?”

“ _Me siento como si no te golpeara lo suficientemente fuerte_ ,” is what Vasquez replies with.

Mother _fucker_. Billy had done this too, eventually, and so had Red. They’d all slipped into a different language to give up their truths and unfortunately, Faraday hasn’t got a goddamn clue what Vasquez is saying.

“God damn it, Vas,” Faraday complains. “I came here to get you truthful because I need to know if you feel the same way as I do,” he says, annoyed and heated. “I got two days left of truth-telling and I couldn’t stop thinking about the waste of opportunity it’d be if I didn’t get to tell you what I feel, if I didn’t get to hear what _you_ feel. Look, I’m not going to run to the others and tattle and tell them what you said, but would you please speak English with me? Please,” he gets out, exhausted and hopeful.

“Fine,” Vasquez exhales, still looking grumpy, but a little subdued by Faraday’s promise not to rat out whatever he says. “You really came here because you wanted to hear me tell the truth, but you don’t understand that I wouldn’t have lied to you if you had asked without infecting me with this bug.”

“I didn’t know,” Faraday admits. “For all that we’ve spent a lot of time together, there’s times I feel like I don’t know you.”

“You have feelings, though. You’re crazy about me, you said,” Vasquez echoes what Faraday said before.

“Yeah,” Faraday agrees, wondering why it doesn’t feel so terrifying to lay everything on the line like this. “Pretty sure that somewhere along the lines of you sitting by my side and watching me heal up, getting those big and incredible hands of yours on my body to help heal me, I went and did the stupidest thing a man could do and fell for you.” He laughs, like it’s all a hilarious joke instead of the most intimate he’s been with another person in his life. “How about that?”

“And you came here just to tell me this?”

“No,” Faraday shakes his head and wishes that had been all. “I wanted to know what you felt when you couldn’t lie.” Sure, it’s an asshole move, but at least now he can set his heart at rest. Unless he’s about to have it broken, in which case, he’ll deserve it for forcing Vasquez to tell him the truth. 

“You already know.”

“I really don’t, Vasquez,” Faraday protests, but is amazed because it seems like Vasquez genuinely thinks that Faraday knows what’s going on in that heart of his. “I wouldn’t have ridden all the way here otherwise.” Speaking of, he’s pretty sure that Sam’s probably waking up now and reading Faraday’s note, so he’s in trouble no matter where he goes. 

Vasquez is flushing red in the cheeks, looking like he’s warring with Faraday’s request that he speaks English. “I thought that you did. I thought you were ignoring the part where I like you that way because you were a ladies’ man with your Ethels and Marias and your whores. I didn’t think that you felt anything back. I never got the sense you did. I keep calling you nicknames, keep hovering, keep around you…” He licks his lips, shaking his head as he settles into a chair, lighting a cigarette. “I thought maybe it was just me.”

“Holy shit, you want me.”

“Fuck you, Faraday.”

He laughs, loud and vibrant, because that’s the damn truth, but the flush in Vasquez’s cheeks is proof enough that _how_ Vasquez meant that is not a damn insult, but a suggestion. Turns out that this day is definitely going to go much better than he expected. Reaching over to pluck the cigarette from Vasquez’s fingers, he bears into his space.

“Don’t worry, darling,” he drawls, “I intend to let you.”

* * *

When five long (and incredible) days are up, Faraday leads the charge as they trot back towards the outskirts of town where Sam and the others have set up camp, pointedly far enough away from the town that no one is going to get infected by a new strain of the same bug that they’d been suffering under. He’s sore as hell, barely able to ride his horse (and Vasquez ain’t much better).

“Faraday,” Sam greets him. “I see Vasquez didn’t kill you.”

“Thought about it,” Vasquez replies cheerfully, clearly basking in his ability to lie again. “Decided that it might bring another warrant on my head and nobody needs that trouble.” That seems to get a good laugh out of the rest of the group, but Sam’s eyes haven’t left Faraday’s form.

He waits until they’re settled for dinner that night to get Faraday alone. “You get everything off your chest you needed to tell him?”

“Didn’t exactly have much of a choice.”

“You didn’t have to go infect him,” Sam replies dryly, pointing out the very real choice that Faraday did have. “I thought about chasing you down, but I had hopes that things might turn out for the best.” Glancing to where Vasquez is currently poking fun at something Billy’s said, Faraday has to agree that he’s a very lucky bastard that it did work out. “Be good to each other and, Faraday?”

“Yes, boss?”

“You ever go against my orders like that again, I’ll shoot you in the hip a little,” Sam warns, all affable and kind like he’s not threatening violence against Faraday.

“Message heard loud and clear.”

Without taking his eyes off Vasquez, Faraday tips his bottle of whiskey back for a long drink. He’s not exactly feeling remorseful for breaking the rules so he could go and find out whether he had a shot at this kind of companionship and hell, he’d take a bullet from Sam if it came down to that again. When Vasquez gives him a wink from across the fire, Faraday lets out a delighted laugh and makes the bed that he plans to lie in.

He's a lucky bastard for plenty of reasons, but seeing as things keep turning out so well for him, he can’t find it in him to mind.

And that, right there, that’s the most honest truth he’ll ever know.

**Author's Note:**

> Translation:
> 
> _Me siento como si no te golpeara lo suficientemente fuerte_ – I feel like I didn’t hit you hard enough


End file.
